Zero tolerance immigration policy? 'We need a plan B. Or C. Or D'

U.S. Customs and Border Protection's Rio Grande Valley Sector via AP

In this photo provided by U.S. Customs and Border Protection, people who've been taken into custody related to cases of illegal entry into the United States, sit in one of the cages at a facility in McAllen, Texas, Sunday, June 17, 2018.

In this photo provided by U.S. Customs and Border Protection, people who've been taken into custody related to cases of illegal entry into the United States, sit in one of the cages at a facility in McAllen, Texas, Sunday, June 17, 2018. (U.S. Customs and Border Protection's Rio Grande Valley Sector via AP)

Years ago, while in training to become a volunteer as a Court Appointed Special Advocate (CASA) for Kane County, I remember being slightly put-off by what I perceived as this wonderful organization’s zealous efforts to keep children and families together.

Commendable, I thought, but do these parents really deserve to be with their kids when they had failed them, legally and morally, time and time again?

It was an elitist attitude; and it didn’t take long for me to realize why CASA believes so strongly in keeping children with those parents who have put their own offspring at such considerable risk.

Bottom line: separating them often leads to irreparable psychological damage, including depression, PTSD, violence and drug abuse. Even when there was no choice but to remove that parent, CASA worked with the courts overtime to come up with the best situation for those innocent victims, whether it was placing them with family or in foster care.

The answer was certainly not cages or warehouses.

You would of course have to have been hiding under the proverbial rock to not be aware of the growing controversy over the President Donald Trump administration’s “zero tolerance” immigration policy that, in a six-week period, separated more than 2,000 children — many younger than age four — from their parents accused of crossing our southern border illegally.

You would have to be under that rock, too, if you’ve not formed an opinion about this cruel — my opinion — policy put in place by Attorney General Jeff Sessions this spring.

It’s an emotionally charged issue — and I found out just how much so after posting something about it on Facebook . Comments were passionate and diverse — ranging from supporters accusing Barack Obama of the same atrocities to one critic suggesting our allies should close all U.S. military bases and sanction the government until the outrage is stopped.

And of course, there were defenders who fall back on our need to secure our borders and follow the laws of the land. Which I get. I really do.

But the land we live in is America. And putting children in cages, as former first lady Laura Bush pointed out in an op-ed Washington Post piece, is “reminiscent of the Japanese-American internment camps of World War II, now considered to have been one of the most shameful episodes in U.S. history.”

My opinion: Whether we’re talking schools, courts or immigration reform, any time you throw the phrase “zero tolerance” into a policy, you’re asking for problems. It’s a phrase that defies common sense and operates only in black and white. And it works against compromise, which as far as many people are concerned, is what is so desperately needed to solve this issue.

The media is, understandably, focusing on the cries of these children, as are Democrats — no surprise here: It is after all, an election year. But it would take a stone cold heart to not feel for these little ones torn from the arms of parents accused of crossing the border illegally.

Gloria Kelley describes herself as a Republican who says she understands what Trump and his administration is trying to do to secure our borders. And as the executive director of CASA Kane County, which works with over 600 neglected or abused children in danger of falling through the cracks, she realizes tough and often unpopular decisions have to be made in a leadership role.

“Trump is trying to follow policy,” she insists. But when children are pulled away from their parents, it “can affect them developmentally for the rest of their lives.”

Kelley has seen just that in her 11 years working with CASA. And “that’s why we do everything in our power to try to unite families and get the services parents need to make them better parents,” she told me. “And if that does not happen, then we go to plan B. Or C. Or D.”

It’s when “the system is trying to be the parent,” Kelley added, referencing government organizations like DCFS, that it often does not work.

“I see both sides,” she said. “But the ones who are suffering are the children.”

While Juan Garcia has a different political view than Kelley, his thoughts are not that different.

The 23-year-old Aurora advocate, working with the local community group, Immigrant Liberation Alliance, plans to put together a town hall meeting later this month to bring more awareness to the zero tolerance issue and to “debunk the many myths” surrounding it.

The Benedictine University political science graduate says he too believes we can’t have open borders and desperately need immigration reform. But so many of the people crossing, he added, are caught up in a “never-ending cycle” that forces them to “take drastic measures because of the drastic situations they are in.”

And this administration’s “extreme approach is morally wrong because these kids have no say in what is going on.”

As a former intern working in Washington, D.C., Garcia said he saw how Republicans and Democrats easily come together “when they want to … which is always when they are out of session.”

Congressman Bill Foster, D-Naperville, co-sponsor of a companion bill to the Keep Families Together Act recently introduced, says Congress can indeed remedy this policy, but only if Trump is willing to sign legislation.

“He won't find much support if he tries to use it as a bargaining chip,” Foster wrote in an email response. “It's important to remember that President Trump can fix this situation with one phone call. No matter how often Republicans in Congress criticize the policy, they still must support serious legislation to put an end to family separations."

Congressman Randy Hultgren, R-Plano, said he’s pushing for that same result.

“(On Tuesday) afternoon we in the House will meet with President Trump, and I intend to share with him the outrage I and so many in our district and nation feel toward the unconscionable situation at the border,” he wrote in an email response. “I will continue to push for a humane and immediate solution. Our laws must be followed, but how we enforce those laws matters and reflects who we are as Americans.”

While Garcia believes the current immigration crisis “will get worse before it gets better,” CASA’s Kelley is optimistic there could be a “silver lining.” By Trump pushing it to “this boiling point,” she said, maybe both sides will put aside their political agendas and work together.

“America needs to see the ones suffering,” she said. “I really do hope more good comes out of this than bad.”